Michael Overstreet ‘had knife obsession’ before murder of Kelly Eckart says ex-wife

The wife of Michael Dean Overstreet has revealed he had an obsession with knives before he raped and murdered 18-year-old college student Kelly Eckart.

Melissa Holland said: “He would sharpen them with a wet rock and make sure they were all razor sharp. I mean, he did it religiously every day.

“He would arrange them in patterns and take pictures of them. Those were his pride and joy basically.

“At first it didn’t bother me. But then I started noticing how Dean always carried a knife with him if not more than one — but he always had one on his side like a hunting knife, and he would tie it to his leg with a string.

“I started getting a little bit nerve-wrecked about that, especially that he was so volatile with his temper.”

Melissa was speaking as part of an interview for a new episode of Investigation Discovery series Evil Lives Here, which looks at how she initially was sure that Overstreet — her high-school boyfriend — was the man of her dreams.

But only after they tied the knot did she start to understand that her hopes for a happy marriage had put her in severe danger.

Overstreet raped and murdered Eckart, a student at Franklin College, Indiana, in 1997 after she encountered him while driving home on a country road from her job at a Walmart.

He was convicted in 2000 after DNA evidence linked him to the crime, and he was sentenced to death. However, in 2014 it was ruled that he was not competent to be executed after mental health experts said he had schizophrenia. He remains on death row.

Evil Lives Here airs Sundays at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery.